For the record, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou 8:04, Cesar Chavez himself condemned illegal workers. Because they DEPRESSED WAGES for HIS WORKERS. He went down to Mexican villages and nicely asked the inhabitants to not come north. They ignored him 40 years ago the same way they ignore our laws today.

Charles Everett is one of the people who drifts in here from time to time to impart wisdom. Most of it is usually incredibly obvious stuff, useless stuff, or hype of the same brand Jim tries to pass off.

Because they would no longer be hired to do these menial jobs. Why? Because they would be paid at least a minimum wage and then higher wages when the unions come in. There would be no incentive for companies to add these extra costs.

When Alabama and Georgia passed their stringent anti-illegal immigration laws, their economies didn't collapse. Unless California and Florida have a monopoly on strawberry picking and clean toilets.

Once illegals get a way to stay in the Country legally and seek citizenship they will be replaced with undocumented workers that came after the cut off and those that will continue to enter illegally.The people who hire them are not looking for legal workers they are looking for the cheapest workers they can exploit.

On Tuesday as employees were being told of the closing of Gannett Direct Marketing Jerry Hill made a comment to Bob Peibler and Jerry started laughing. This was at the same time when some of the employees became emotional about the loss of their jobs. Several employees witness this act. It takes a real ass to act this way! To all the employees at GDMS I wish you all the best of luck!

I witnessed the same uncaring act. We were told to be professional until the end. Jerry Hill was the most unprofessional, rude, crude, ignorant, sick SOB I have ever met. Most of these employees have been with the company for many, many years and were in tears while he laughed. As terrible as this is for me and others, if Jerry Hill is an example of the Gannett upper management, then I am glad to be parting ways.

I lost my Dad last August and we did laugh. Friends and family laughed with us and they also cried with us. No one else laughed about what Jerry Hill said not even Bob Peibler whom the comment was director too. Laughing just like crying has duel meaning. Just pick the meaning you want.

They did the same thing to me when I left. They were grinning like a cheshire cat. They must have "Ass" training at those big meetings they go to all day and still don't know a thing. Especially how to treat people with respect.

Let's think this through logically: Managers are paid, at least partially, based upon the number of people working for them. Layoffs diminish that kingdom, cutting some of the reasoning behind their pay level. It stands to reason that someone managing 50 people is paid more than 25, right?

The only reason anyone would be happy about losing someone in a layoff is if that person was more of a pain in the ass than they were worth, if they fulfilled their job description adequately but still needed to move on to another position.

Even then, an asshole with a pulse is better than a cold position that never gets filled.

Your managers aren't getting a huge bonus to cut staff. They're keeping their jobs by making the decisions to keep the property running. Just because we don't wring our hands and cry in public about it doesn't mean many of us aren't saddened by these business necessities.

I don't know that situation but in my situation they let go of the staff and replaced us by outsourcing. All the managers kept their jobs and some got promotions. So Gannett does reward those that could care less about other people and their problems.

Jim - the only reason they can't get unskilled American workers to clean and pick produce is because the Americans are better off financially to collect public checks. Of course, "public" in this context means "forcibly seized from productive citizens under penalty of imprisonment."

Populations as a whole will do what they are incentivized to do. We need laws that make it more attractive to be a field worker or cleaning person, rather than to make babies and live off other people's money.

This is probably stating the obvious, but the whole concept of USA Today just doesn't make sense any more.

Why put a dollar into a machine to buy something that contains content that you can get for free from countless sources with just one or two taps on your smartphone?

USA Today's content is neither unique nor compelling. In fact, your average community weekly (paper) probably has a better future than USAT. At least the content and advertising in some local papers is somewhat exclusive. If you want to learn about the house fire down the street in small town America, you're best bet is still the local paper, particularly in places where news sites like Patch.com don't exist. I won't get that fire story in USAT, and I can certainly read about the latest on North Korea or the Masters without dropping coins into a clunky machine.

I'm not sure how USAT pays the bills these days. Racks are disappearing. Content is getting sloppy and less credible in my humble opinion. The website is often stale and bordering on juvenile in its approach to presenting the news. Even the logo is dumb as all get out.

So it's astonishing that USAT survives in that grand palace in one of the most expensive areas of the country. Where is the money coming from to support that staff and campus? And how many more months or years can USAT last before someone realizes that these recent baby steps toward changing the model are just that...baby steps that might keep the flagship afloat a little longer but will not save it from sinking. The core of the problem is that USAT in any recognizable form is obsolete.

Whether you're young or seasoned, I would be very cautious about thinking you can settle in at any gas-guzzling media brand, whether it's the network broadcast newscasts or USAT. These places just can't support the overhead that still exists despite all the cutbacks. They are going to have to reinvent themselves by downsizing and targeting niche audiences. That is the only way to survive and that involves way more cuts than we've seen to this point.

Where is the money coming from, you ask? From all us poor slobs at sites in the hinterland. We have to send X amount of profit to McLean, so we can hardly afford toilet paper or printer paper. Been that way for years.

11:22 hit on exactly what many people feel about Usa Today. It is a sentiment that has been articulated and shared by others here in McLean and the bureaus. You may want to drink the koolaide, 12 pm., but we have to.

We will miss you Gannett Direct, Some of you have been here 30 plus years and taken a sharp sacrifice to work here. To have Jerry Hill laugh during your hardship seems like Corporate summed up.

Is it better to punch an Asshole while your still an employee or wait till after your fired??

I wonder how much Salary is being wasted on the top half of our company with decisions that are reckless and hurt us as a product every day. Many people that are left here are doing the job of 3 people compared to 3 or 4 years ago. which is the same time they stopped paying us yearly increases. I wish I could bring in a couple hundred K for bonuses on decisions that are killing us. How many of our upper management class have houses that cost upwards into million range, or have summer homes......

Whoever you are, let it go. You have been repeating the same inarticulate hatred for years on this blog. You sound demented. Go get help already. Whatever your obsession is with Tony Simmons, it is unhealthy.

Unfortunately, there are a number of abusive posters here. There are the schadenfreude enthusiasts who become positively giddy at the prospect of their colleagues being laid off and/or furloughed. There are the posters who loudly boast, with few details, of their incredibly successful exploits after leaving evil Gannett. And then there are the sad posters who cannot let go after leaving the company, or who continually rage against certain people, or who are sick homophobes. Or a combination of the above. I read the blog because I can glean useful information, even after wading through the garbage. Jim should be praised for his restraint in dealing with these unpleasant people and for giving us insight into the goings on at Gannett.

While we are debating the number of people spewing vile toward the company and each other, one fact remains. The business as we know it continues to wither and shrink. Companies in similar industries have both downsized management and labor costs. But that solves only the business end of the problem. You still have to offer potential customers a compelling reason to buy the product. If you are just telling people you are new and improved, you arent fooling anyone. Going for cheap, outside content (or cheap inexperienced labor) only works if you want to keep your business on life support.

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."